Reviewed by bryannaleigh on
((This review may have a few spoilers.))
Alice: The Wanderland Chronicles by J.M. Sullivan is another retelling of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland. Alice Carrol is a seventeen year old girl living with her adopted sister after a recent plague takes over the world. Being the only two in their family left, the two sisters make due and scavenge for resources in near by towns. When a fellow surviving family asks for Dinah's help with their just sick newborn, the turmoil in Alice's already destroyed life falls again. After a trip for the city to find food and medicine, the two girls are attacked by a memerath--a zombie-like human affected by the Plague. Dinah gets sick the following day. Panicked, Alice goes on her own adventure to help save her sister from becoming one of the memeraths. She makes her way to Phoenix, Arizona where she's read that there's a doctor who has found a cure or antidote that could help save her sister. Along the way, she makes new "friends" and uncovers the truth of the memeorath plague.
This story is far from being the most unique and inventive story I've read. To be honest, I'm usually the type to avoid most things zombies--their real life potential is terrifying, thank you very much-- and Alice in Wonderland. I grew up on the 1950's Disney classic. Even as a kid, I always found it strange and often boring. Though, to be fair, I'm also the person who thinks that no one really likes Alice in Wonderland, and they all just really like it for the Cheshire Cat. But what do I know? I might just be biased against it. I still have yet to finish reading the original story that I had started several years ago. I'm not even sure I have the book anymore, but I digress.
With my dislike for these two things, it's a wonder why I picked up this book in the first place. Maybe I wanted to get out of my comfort zone to try and see if I could read something that didn't involve a head strong female winning back her kingdom and uncovering secret powers that she didn't know she had, or the other million of plethoras of sassy, strong, independent women that have been filling the young adult scene. Or maybe I had one too many to drink one night and thought "hey, why not?" I think I'm going to go with the latter on this one.
Alice: The Wanderland Chronicles is not by any means a bad book. It took me a while to read it, but it did keep me intrigued enough to keep going through it. Alice's character was not all Ithat bad. It was almost refreshing to have a female lead that was not so completely head strong or over the top sassy. She's probably one of the more "realistic" characters I've read in a while. She's caring enough to try and to do anything she can do to try save her sister; she's not overly boy crazy with the world having had fallen apart around her. There is a bit of an annoyance in her curiosity, but I guess that's in part of having to do with the ties to the original Alice in Wonderland story.
I do wish that there was more to the characters in the story. some of them do seem really flat. I think the main issue I have with it at this moment, is the villain. Or one of the villains. This story plays with two different villains-- Dr. Matthew Hatta and the Red Queen, or Queen of Hearts, I forgot what she was called in this. Matt Hatta (Mad Hatter) is a doctor that is responsible for the momerath plague. He was an overly ambitious doctor who was determined to find a way to better human live. When was his trials goes wrong, he finds it to be a blessing and human's next step in evolution. He was a good balance between possibly genius and absolutely crazy. I enjoyed him as a bad guy. The queen, however, is a different story. she is one of those who tries to come across as good and wanting to help cure the plague. But she's a little off. I'm still not a hundred percent sure which side she's supposed to be on, and I think that's a lot of the problem. Even the epilogue didn't really with much.
Other characters weren't too bad. Some were bland, others were entertaining. I do wish that Sullivan had tried to be more creative with the names and try to switch up the roles of the original Alice characters. As it is now, we have Chess, who's meant to be the Cheshire Cat, Bug who's the catipillar, Waite Abbot who's the white rabbit, Matthew Hatta as the Mad Hatter. The Queen's knights are called the Jokers. This part of the story all seems a little lazy for me.
To be honest, I probably would have enjoyed this story more if it lost the Alice in Wonderland attempts. A lot of it seems forced and relies too much on the story to keep it going. The quotes and mentions might be more appealing to someone who might have actually enjoyed the original story, but for me it was a miss.
This story also does lead up into what will probably become a series. I think I might skip out on continuing this when it happens.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 21 August, 2017: Finished reading
- 21 August, 2017: Reviewed